page_title: Fossil fuel phase-out
section_title: Coal
hierarchical_section_title: Fossil fuel phase-out / Fossil fuels / Coal
caption_attribution_description: English: Castle Gate Power Plant near Helper, Utah
context_page_description: Fossil fuel phase-out is the gradual reduction of the use of fossil fuels to zero use. Current efforts in fossil fuel phase-out involve replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy sources in sectors such as transport, heating and industry.
context_section_description: Coal use peaked in 2013 but to meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming to well below 2 °C (3.6 °F) coal use needs to halve from 2020 to 2030. However as of 2017, coal supplied over a quarter of the world's primary energy and about 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Phasing out coal has short-term health and environmental benefits which exceed the costs, and without it the 2 °C target in the Paris Agreement cannot be met; but some countries still favor coal, and there is much disagreement about how quickly it should be phased out.
  As of 2018, 30 countries and many sub-national governments and businesses had become members of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, each making a declaration to advance the transition away from unabated coal power generation. As of 2019, however, the countries which use the most coal have not joined, and some countries continue to build and finance new coal-fired power stations. A just transition from coal is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
  In 2019 the UN Secretary General said that countries should stop building new coal power plants from 2020 or face 'total disaster'.
caption: Coal-fired power plants provided 30% of consumed electricity in the United States in 2016.[1] This is the Castle Gate Plant near Helper, Utah.
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